SIMON'S POV
I leapt from my bed with alarming suddenness. It took all of my strength to clench onto the memory of Cas' skin grazing against mine. I was terrified that the images of him that were contained in my mind would vanish, for that was all I had of him - memories. It wasn't so much the kiss that I remembered; it was the way he had let his mouth linger on mine, the way his breath had caressed my cheek.
I staggered out of my bedroom, and out of the bungalow, into the winter air. I was lost without Castiel. I brought my hands to my head, tugging on my hair out of sheer madness. I fought the urge to scream out in anguish, and channelled my distress by running. With no destination in mind, and no shoes to cover my bare feet, I tore through the night. Each breath ripped apart my lungs and my knees were aching, yet I still sprinted through the dark, never intending to end, fuelled only by the thought of Cas.
The streets through which I ran grew narrower, darker. The clouds overhead had completely blocked out the pale glow of the moon, but tall and ugly street lamps burned here and there, throwing out a feeble, orange gleam.
I was unsure of how long I ran for. All I knew was that there was blood coating the soles of my uncovered feet and that every inch of me burned with agony. I had sobered up from my sleep-induced dreamlike state, and was now on an empty street with the moon as my only companion. I walked, watching my reflection expand and contract.
I sank down, perching on a damp, mossy wall with my head in my hands, when a revelation hit me like a ton of bricks - if I wanted to meet with Cas, all I had to do was sleep.
-oo0oo-
The blush of dawn was already on the horizon, brining an eerie blue glow to the world of the dead. Castiel awoke with a jolt from Simon's dream. He groaned, melancholy filling him from head to toe, incited by losing Simon yet again, and getting to spend so little time with him this visit. Thoughts ran through his head at seventy miles per hour, thoughts about Simon, and about his plan to bring Simon to him. Little did he know, his thoughts were being intercepted, listened in on by none other than Amy Dyer.
From another room, the young girl good-naturedly listened to Castiel's thoughts. She had recently been playing around with all of the interesting things the dead could get up to. She felt a small tingle of satisfaction at successfully eavesdropping on the angel's thoughts. She had found that with reading somebody's thoughts, entering their minds, came along a taste in your mouth, each flavour distinctive to the person. For example, she now tasted a bitter metal taste, indicating that the heavenly being was experiencing some particularly low-spirited emotions.
Still overhearing Castiel's thoughts, she realised what had just been thought by the gloomy man. Amy became aware that her pale white fists were clenched tight, and her heart was beating faster than she'd ever felt it before. She forced herself to relax. Surely Castiel couldn't have been thinking about her Simon Monroe, and her Kieren Walker... but how many people sharing the same names could be under the same circumstances? Amy focused, demanding her dead body to calm again. Surely this man wouldn't consider doing something so dangerous and so evil. Using her mind, she willed herself to concentrate on his location, therefore she could confront him. What was this angel turning into? And would Simon go along with this plan, knowing it would break Amy's heart?
-oo0oo-
SIMON'S POV
I walked over to Kieren, deeper into the cave. He lurched suddenly, leaving his daydream. His eyes looked blank and confused, before he blinked and I saw his pupils shrink down to their regular size. "Simon!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"I just came for some quiet... Though I could ask you the same thing."
There was a pause. "I just needed to get away from things, you know?" I nodded. I sat down next to him, and realized how close to him I had placed myself - our shoulders were brushing - but I found that I didn't mind, and wished I could simply lean onto his shoulder and reveal everything to him, about how I missed him, and about Castiel.
Kieren looked straight in my eyes. Everything I was feeling must have shown on my face. I heard him take a sharp intake of breath, and he started to rub my back gently: an absent, comforting gesture. Instead of shrugging away from his touch uncomfortably like I expected I would in a situation like this, I found myself leaning into his touch.
His touch on my back seemed to radiate warmth, a sensation I had missed. A shiver went through me, but I did not feel the cold, it was something other than the cold that shook me.
"I've missed you," admitted Kieren in a whisper, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen between us.
Recognition of what was happening shot through me like a bolt of lightning. I straightened up with a jerk, forcing myself out of his arms and onto my feet. I couldn't do this with Kieren, not now that I was with Castiel. I turned around in a tight circle, pacing backwards and forwards like an animal in a cage. Kieren sighed and I felt some guilt. I had sat here, comforting my ex-boyfriend, when Cas was all I wanted. along came Cas, and everything changed.
"I'm sorry, Simon," he said quietly.
"No, Kieren, no, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have overreacted, it's just that... things are different now," I said, not being able to bear looking down at his beautiful face, which I know would be holding a devastated frown. All that was left in the cave was silence, hanging over us like a boulder threatening to fall and crush us both. The breathing seemed to cease. A long pause. A gasp, like we couldn't hold our breaths any more, and the return of the raspy sounds.
I couldn't speak, my heart jumped and jittered in my chest, and each deafening beat thumped louder and louder, and rang through my ears.
I turned towards the cave opening. The small hints of daybreak were beginning to show. The sky was deep blue, the dark shapes of storm clouds moving over the shadows of the trees. So much time had passed whilst we had been sitting in the cave together, yet it had only felt like minutes.
"I'm sorry, Simon," I heard from behind me, breaking my thoughts. I barely had time to blink, and before I knew it, Kieren had bolted, running from the cave, and running from me.